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by howdoidothisagain



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Baking, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Not Beta Read, Other, Slice of Life, and also super small, im sorry for vanishing for several months, not in the slightest so excuse any silly stuff, this is v chill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-18 02:00:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28735350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/howdoidothisagain/pseuds/howdoidothisagain
Summary: In which Levi is very tired, and Erwin only knows the universe’s simplest recipes
Relationships: Levi/Erwin Smith
Comments: 8
Kudos: 76





	home

Levi is not enjoying Valentines.

It’s not like he enjoys it any other year, but this time he let himself get just a little hopeful, thinking of some time with his own lover, and now he was paying the price by having an even harder than usual time controlling his temper as him and the rest of his kitchen staff run around trying to get everything done well and in time for the countless amounts couples streaming in and out of the restaurant for “a romantic dinner”.

‘Fuck that’ he thinks, ‘what kind of romantic dinner involves walking into a crowded market and spending a butt ton load on some food?’

Somewhere behind him, Gunther walks in teary eyed because some man thought it was okay to tell him off because he’s accidentally given him water instead of the stupid drink he’d ordered, which Gunther had given to him immediately, considering he’d just left it at the counter.

“What kind of romantic dinner involves acting like a dick to a waiter?” Petra grumbles next to him, and Levi nods in agreement, his annoyance bubbling just under his skin now, waiting for something to puncture him so he could unleash his wrath.

It’s another 3 hours of work and 5 near mental breakdowns, the restaurant is closed, and they’re all headed home. Petra and Oluo head home together, Whilst Eld offers to drop Gunther home, a highly considerate offer considering the fact that the waiter is probably the most worn out emotionally.

Levi heads home alone. He’s surprised when he doesn’t snap at the first opportunity, said opportuntiy being a pair of teenagers, the Reiss’ blonde daughter and her maybe girlfriend, making out in the fucking elevator. Both girls immediately push away, faces red.

‘Probably not from shame’ he groans before avoiding whatever awkward silence he was going to have to bear if he was to take the elevator with them and heads to the stairs. 

His back protests the entire way, and he’s practically ready to collapse when he gets to his apartment’s door.

He unlocks the door and steps in, barely taking any time to remove his boots and removing his coat before he heads for the couch. It feels almost braindead in a way, but he can only care so much as he drifts off.

\--

He wakes up in his bed. It’s still dark out, so he couldn’t have slept for too long. He checks his phone anyway, which informs him that it’s been 2 hours since he came home. The fact that he’s in bed and, as he now notes, dressed in his favorite pair of pajamas (old trunks, a shirt looted from Erwin’s wardrobe) however, makes him feel a little guilty, because it means that Erwin was, or in a more optimistic view, still is, home. And Levi didn’t spend any time with him. 

He mopes in bed for a few moments, or how so ever long it took for the sweet smell to reach him. He perks up instantly.

The optimistic viewpoint has won.

Levi clambers out of the bed and runs to the kitchen, where he finds Erwin casually measuring out butter.

“Hi.” He can smell apples, and can tell that there must be cinnamon in the mixture too. 

Erwin smiles at him, all warm and kind and Levi’s insides are already mush. “Hello.”

“What’re you up to? It’s like, 12 in the night.” He asks.

Erwin looks at him confused, so Levi awkwardly points at the ingredients all laid out on the shelf.

“Oh!” he laughs a little, “Oh it’s nothing much. It’s just a… uh… a crumble. An apple crumble.”

Levi’s heart does this little thing where it presses up hard enough that he could cry. “Yeah?”

Erwin nods, a smile still set on his face.

“You have the oven going?”

“Well yeah, this all isn’t going to take much time.”

Levi nods. He stands there for a while before he steps toward the stove and removes the pot’s lid. He presses the spoon against one of the apple cubes and it breaks fairly easy. 

“I think this is done.”

“Alright.”

“Where is the baking dish?”

Erwin points to where a pair of gloves lie on the counter, or rather, on top of the baking dish.

He spoons the apple cubes into the dish and sets it aside before going over to erwin, who is still making the crumble itself.

“Let me do that.”

“Not now.”

Levi frowns. “Why?”

“Just because.” 

His shoulders slump. If he’d only been thinking tears earlier because he was giddy, now he was both that and ever so grateful, and the tears just came out. Erwin doesn’t notice at first, but then Levi lets out an almost pitiful sob, and Erwin has his arms around before he can turn away or attempt to cover up.

“You can go back to sleep.”

“No.” Levi half says, half sobs into Erwins shoulder again.

“You can, really. I’ll come with you. We can finish this in the morning.” There _ are no customers waiting  _ unsaid.

Levi lets himself be held for a few more moments, waiting to regain some composure before they both work together on the crumble. Between the two of them, Erwin is often the one preparing meals whenever they’re at the same apartment, which isn’t often given how busy their schedules are. Levi used to want to take charge of the kitchen during their time together at first, back when they were fresh out of college, but that wish quickly fizzled out as he found himself more and more tired after getting work, and promotions did not help.

He doesn’t mind it anymore. On Erwins recipes, they are all simple, basic ones he picked up from his father growing up; but Levi is fine with that. Whenever Erwin cooks, it feels like home, like he can finally take off his head chef apron. The food itself is good, and far too often reminds him of the meals his mother used to scrape together when they had the bare minimum to go on.

Erwin adds the crumble into the baking dish, and Levi wipes down the counter. They work together to clean the rest of the kitchen while the crumble bakes, even if there is hardly anything to clean at all given how little they use the place. They wait out the remaining 10 minutes continuing whatever documentary Erwin had been watching before.

The timer goes off just as the historian begins explaining how Paradis’ ancient civil war affected world politics at the time and how it became immortalized in the form of mythology about giants, and specifically about the gay one of the “3 great romances”, something Erwin has talked about a million times before which also never-endingly amuses Levi. He thinks as much as he goes to check on the crumble and pull it out if it’s done. He can hear the narrator talk about the captain who for over a decade did only what his lover, his commander, asked him to do, or benefitted from. What kind of idiot would go through 15 and more man eating giants just because he told himself it would help his commander? 

The crumble is done. He sets it on a coaster, and pulls out two spoons from the utensil drawer, not caring for plates because it would mean more dishes to clean. He walks out into the dark corridor and then a few steps later turns again to walk into the living room. As he’s greeted by Erwins warm smile and a “did it turn out well?” he shrugs. “We’re about to find out.”

They dig in, and Levi hums in approval. The crumble is good, as always. It’s almost impossible to mess up beyond salvation after all. 

It burns their tongues at first, but after a while it’s all good again. They finish all of it in the next 2 hours or so, mostly because nothing can keep Erwin from a good dessert. If Levi’s being honest, he’s sure the trait of his that won Erwin over in the beginning of their relationship was his 3 years of working in a bakery. While he may not cook often when they’re living together, he does try and make out just enough time to pull together little packets of affection for him, as his mother would have described them. It’s a headache often, and disheartening when he doesn’t find the time to actually give them to his partner until later when they’re stale. But he still does it because watching Erwin's face shift from a regular smile to one so bright it could challenge the sun for its spot in the sky is absolutely worth it.

Sitting there, Levi thinks to himself about the myth again. Maybe he would do unreasonable things for Erwin in hard times too. Even without being asked. Maybe he already does.

**Author's Note:**

> hello i am literally just posting this bc a)i've been sitting on this for too long for no reason, b)i wanted to contribute to fandom again and c)i really don't know.  
> life has been fun this past year (jk but like. it was fine ig. i made it through)!! i got my oct/nov exam result and it was? fine? but now i have major exams coming up this year in summer, and i want to pass desperately so i can go to the boss level of education or whatever. i do hope to write enough to be able to upload on here in the mean time too, but lets see.  
> thank you for reading this work, and i hope you enjoyed it :'D and stay well and safe!!!


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